


my mistakes were made for you

by thetormentita



Category: Lovecraft Country (TV)
Genre: F/M, and the convertible around e.e, if you get the references i give you candy, just for scientific purposes hahahahahaha, not sure if this can be considered an au, sort of fluff? of course fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-02-06
Packaged: 2021-03-15 00:20:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29180154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thetormentita/pseuds/thetormentita
Summary: such an enigma. the mysterious blond with the unique car.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dearestwinter](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dearestwinter/gifts).



It's a sunny day, and something inside her is pleased to have the chance to enjoy it out of the school. Eagerly she has been waiting for spring to come, and leave aside jackets and scarves, and the Spring Break feels like a miracle.

Kate O’Leary isn’t a woman used to complain about anything. Growing up in a home like hers had trained her to endure with pride, and to have been sent to a place like that, far from home, her friends and siblings and everything she knew hadn’t been precisely what she wanted back then, and even now she regrets it, but she had managed to find her place there, at the other side of the coast, and she is somewhat pleased with that fact.

“—But I just don’t understand how could that happen”

A pair of big brown eyes are placed on her, frowning. Thrice per week she meets Diana, the teacher on the south side of the city, and both prepare the lessons for the rest of the days and, at the same time, they learn more about things that can be foreign to them.

“My dad always said that the Queen thought they weren’t good enough” she shrugs her shoulders as she pours herself some more lemonade, cursing internally for the unexpected heat “I think she was just selfish because she preferred to mourn her husband for years instead of fixing the problems there were, but I can’t remember the precise dates. If you wanna, I can write my mom asking about this. Her mom was born during the famine, I think, but I’m not quite sure.”

She likes those meetings, and also the opportunities she has to learn more about a side of her country she has never been able to see during her teens. At the beginning she had planned to go home during Spring Break, but when his eldest brother was destined to Asia, she had to stay there because it was nearest to where the soldiers were supposed to return, so she had planned that afternoon weeks ago, and the sunlight bathing all around the street seemed to help them with their mission.

“Did you receive anything from Freddie?” 

Kate grins, fighting back the laughter. She had arrived there with two of his siblings, who had helped her settle on her new home, and they called everybody’s attention back then, those clear copies of their father, with Fred being the one who looked the most like him. Tall, athletic and with those blue eyes able to melt everything, she soon grew used to being asked about ‘that handsome brother of yours’.

"I told him last time I'd be at my mum's this week, so I guess he just sent there something, but—”

The street is calmed. At those hours nobody drives anywhere, because they surely have more important things to do than exhibit themselves in front of a neighborhood that knows them too much, and the fact of the engine of a car almost competing with the radio placed by the window calls her attention. Her bright eyes go from her friend to the other side of the fence, and so do Diana’s, only to watch a light blue convertible approaching the door to her house —despite technically not being hers— slowly, like searching specifically for her place.

Kate is used to some sort of disturbs due to her way of ignoring the segregation laws, and in the end she hasn’t ever suffered any physical harm, but she stands up slowly, forgetting her shoes next to the corner of the building, and observes the car, with narrowed eyes. Despite showing herself chill, her mind by instinct is really agitated, busy trying to recognize the automobile or the face of the man driving it.

“Go to the phone and call the police if you hear me scream, okay?” in that moment she remembers her mother, and thanks God to have inherited her reactions. Slowly, calmed down, she climbs down the few steps that separate her from the lawn of the sort of small garden surrounding the red mail box close to the door of the fence and the freshness of the grass under her feet feels nice, adding a pinch of oddness to the situation.

“Miss O’Leary?” asks the man from the car, coming out of it, careless, and surrounding it to approach her in a certain way “I am William Langsdale” he stretches his hand, firmly, waiting for a movement from her, who is trying to remember where does she had heard that surname before “I come from Boston, I’m on the area for business and I have some free time and I want to explore this area. Everybody here says you are the one who can help me, Miss. I hope I’m not interrupting anything” his eyes go to the table with all the stuff on it and hers do the same thing, also watching her friend’s figure in the kitchen, close to where the phone is.

Since they left New York City there hasn’t been anybody harassing them, or trying to convince them to declare against their father, and that made her relax, but one could never know, and to have such a well-mannered man like that William Langsdale that far from the City or Chicago was at least suspicious.

“Nicky has called!” Diana leans out the window, and Kate takes a deep breath “He says a blond stranger with a convertible was looking for a guide, and they all told him to come here!”

Biting her lower lip, she turns to face the blond and gives him his hand, with decission.

“Kate O’Leary” their gazes meet and she melts inside “If you give me half an hour I can show you the town and we can have a coffee or something. Whatcha say?”


	2. Chapter 2

He likes warm days like that one, but in the north. Thanks himself once again to have decided to take the convertible with him while he heads to the outsides of that strange city, willing to return to the pleasant coolness of the forests; a slight breeze helps cooling him down as the newest Bing Crosby hit makes him company, almost making a prelude to what waits for him.

A small town of the north of Florida, almost a village, receives him with the streets empty, no soul outside the houses, only a few curious careless ones on their porches. Definitely a giant contrast to the movement on Jacksonville. For a moment he doubts about being there, blaming himself for a sort of distraction like that one, but everybody needs a rest, even him, and convinces himself that searching for a guide to know more about that part of the state, supposedly part of the path of Titus Braithwaite's trips, seems a proper excuse to himself.

He goes to a diner and they tell him to go to the teacher’s house. The mailman tells him the same. At a place called ‘Nicky’s’ the answer is similar: ‘Go to Ms O’Leary. That girl is really curious and has been exploring the area since day 1’.

But nobody had warned him about that woman.

“So, the people from the museum sent you here? Crap, I didn’t know you guys did things like that” he can’t help but chuckling to those words.

“How did you think pieces went from one place to another?”

They are back to the main street, and she has given him lots of details of that dull place, making him look at it with different eyes. She is a teacher, a genuine curious soul, and the explanations she gives show more about herself than she wants, and he loves it.

As she guides them to the café, placed almost strategically at the border of both parts of the town, he realizes the lack of shyness she has. With those linen trousers showing a bit more than her ankles and a blouse, she definitely marks the difference with the rest of the white women he has saw in the town, and her daring contributes to create an image that just doesn’t fit there.

“Who’s your friend, uh?” a skinny redheaded brings a coffee and a milkshake, and Kate rises an eyebrow as a first answer to that question. For a moment he thanks God for having pushed him there “It’s been a long time since you came with a stranger.”

“Are you jealous, m’boy?” she grins, provocative, and William can see that she takes it as a sort of game.

“Robbie!” a grumpy old man plucks his head out a window supposedly belonging to the kitchen “Leave da missy ‘lone! She’s too much for ya! C’mere!”

When their gazes meet again, they both are trying their best to fight back laughter. 

“I look at you and I see a single peony growing up alone on the grass” she cracks a smile and drinks through the white straw, expecting something “How could a girl like you end in a place like this? Forgive me if I sound rude or I go too far asking you this.”

“Somebody would say you want to go further”

He licks his lips and his eyes go to the table for a moment before returning to that inquisitive face, letting a crooked smirk appear on his face. On the radio was Ella singing, and despite not seeing under the table, he can tell she follows the rhythm with a feet, slightly to not get to disturb him. It really doesn't bother him at all.

"I would like to know the first sincere face on this area a little bit better, for a start. How does it sound, Ms O'Leary?"

"I'm Kate, Ms O'Leary is my mom."

"Okay, Kate then"

They are relaxed, careless, free. The idea of telling her about all he carries with him crosses his mind for a second, only to be rejected afterwards. The woman in front of him shows herself comfortable there, like the queen of that small piece of a county cared by no one. What would she know about the Order? Or about beasts and spells and potions that could tear the world apart easily?

He bites his lower lip as she talks about her origins. Born in New York City, she moved with her family to Chicago when she was young. He decides to ask her about that in a quite near future, out of curiosity and because there is something in that story that is strange, at least to him. 

They keep talking. About music, the last Jane Russell film and the news of the newest one, and he learns about the teacher’s tastes. 

The last night of the Spring Break they are not too far from the town, laying on the hood of the car, observing the clear sky, with all those stars twinkling, drawing pictures above them. Everything is quiet except for the radio, not too loud, playing the hits of the moment, and some candles enlighten dimly the place behind them, just enough to tell whoever wanted to approach them that there is some sort of life there.

"Observing this you still miss the city?" mumbles him, and despite not looking at her he can tell she is biting her cheek.

"Well, maybe in the rich ones mansions they can see this too" she shrugs her shoulders and he smirks at that answer, aware that she has her eyes on the starry sky “Crap. I’m gonna miss this”

“What exactly?”

“This” with a fluid movement of her arm points around them “Our excursions, being able to talk about espionage novels without being called a ‘filthy commie’, a version of the world more close to what it could be than the pile of shit it’s going to be”

At that moment one of his favorite songs starts playing, and he stands up, putting himself in front of her afterwards.

“Come here, let’s dance a bit.”

“I didn’t know you were a dancing person.”

It’s a ballad telling the story of a love lost, and when she goes to where he is she tells him about the sadness of the lyrics. He hums as an answer and fights back a chill when she gets closer to him. He never imagined the warmth of her soft skin.

“I have really had fun here, and it’s because of you” he mumbles with his lips brushing her hair.

“Shut up.”

“I mean it.”

“I know.”

They dance, silent, one more song. When Billie Holliday starts singing about an obsession he pulls a lock of hair behind her ear, softly, almost caressing her silky skin.

"Damn, you would look great with a gardenia on your hair" she smiles, warm, despite they can't see eachother's faces properly he knows it "What will you do once school is over?"

"Dunno, maybe returning home?"

"Come with me, Katie. My family has a house in Chicago and we can live there. I know some important people and you can work there either in a school or as a private teacher, as you wish, but please come with me after spring."

Lady Day sings about arousal, and they approach even more. He doesn't notice the brushing of their lips, only waves of pleasure hitting him like the rocks on the coast. Hell, when was the last time he felt like this?


End file.
